Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Happy to announce that after my desperate, down-on-my-knees pleas of last Friday, the Boneyard received a bunch of submissions. Plus, I discovered that my gmail accounts were not properly synced, and found a few previous submissions.

David Bressan has posted Boneyard 2.4 at History of Geology, and I want to thank him for doing such a great job, using vintage images throughout and organizing the pieces with a "life of a fossil" structure. Head on over and read it, and show David some love for being a fine host.

Friday, December 3, 2010

UPDATE: Just discovered I had a problem with my gmail accounts that prevented the submissions sent to the carnival's email account from getting to me. It's fixed. Still, response has been light, so for the most part, what I wrote applies.

Yep, not so much a "call" as a "plea." No sugarcoating here. I haven't had a single submission to Boneyard 2.4, which is due to be posted at History of Geology on Tuesday, December 7. I really, really, really want to make the Boneyard work, and so far it has been progressing slowly but steadily. Until now. This is a big hurdle.

There are carnivals dedicated to all kinds of cool scientific topics, and paleontology deserves one, too. I have no intention of giving up on it yet, but I have to admit... I'm a little pessimistic about it, as Brian Switek's first go at the Boneyard fizzled out due to lack of interest. And in the blogosphere, he's an elephant and I'm a mouse. So I have every reason to believe that it might have the same outcome in my hands. I'm certainly not trying to guilt people into submitting. I want its growth to be natural, because there is genuine interest. But I'm willing to do some heavy lifting to nurture it and get it to that point. For a little while.

I'm interested in some constructive feedback here. Have any ideas for how I can better promote the carnival? Ideas for why the paleo-blogosphere either doesn't know about it or isn't as receptive to carnivals as those dedicated to other branches of science? War stories of getting your own carnival off the ground? I have a feeling that the problem is multi-faceted.

Welcome to the Boneyard

The Boneyard was a blog carnival dedicated to paleontology and other relevant natural history topics, hosted by a different blog on the first Tuesday of every month.

The original Boneyard carnival was founded by Brian Switek in 2007 and ran until summer of 2008. A second incarnation, started with Brian's blessing, was begun by David Orr in September 2010. It lasted until July of 2011, when low interest prompted David to shut it down again.